My teaching has changed because I am also a writer. When I first started teaching, I didn’t relate my experiences as a writer to what my students were doing. I was too busy trying to act like a teacher; I certainly didn’t want to be viewed as a fellow writer who struggles with writing, too.

But over the years, I have become much more willing to relate my experiences to the difficult tasks that engage my students. I have noticed how hard I work on every poem, article, etc., that I am writing; however, my hard work is not always represented in the finished product. This observation applies just as much, if not more so, to student writers. This awareness has changed the ways that I assess student writing. I try to find ways to grade which honor the hard work that students put into their writing.

Related Resources..

These essays assume that we need to distinguish between grading and evaluation, develop our ability to describe students' writing, connect teaching and evaluation, and continually reexamine the assumptions and practices that guide our evaluation of student writing.

Responding to Student Poems urges writing teachers to “better understand themselves as writers and readers.” For Bizzaro this means questioning our own preconceived critical biases and expanding the range of responses offered to the student-writer.